Seven Voices, One Rigorous Vision
A septet wrestling with density and complexity, rewarding the listener who sits with it closely.
In 1995, Muhal Richard Abrams brought together a septet on the Italian Black Saint label to record seven of his compositions. The lineup — Eddie Allen, David Gilmore, Eugene Ghee, Alfred Patterson, Brad Jones, and Reggie Nicholson — was assembled specifically for this session, and the results feel deliberately constructed rather than improvised around familiar material. These are Abrams' pieces played by musicians tasked with navigating their frequent density and compositional intricacy, which means the album demands attention. There is no coasting here.
AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow gave the album four stars and noted that the septet's dense writing requires several listens to fully absorb, but he made clear the effort pays off. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it three and a half stars, describing the music as fine and thoroughly thought jazz. Both assessments point to the same thing: this is serious work, intellectually engaged and uncompromising in its execution. Abrams doesn't simplify for accessibility.
Within his catalog, Think All, Focus One sits as a studio document of his compositional ambition — not a starting point for newcomers, but rather a record that makes sense once you've spent time elsewhere with his music. The septet format allows him to explore ideas too complex for smaller groups, and the musicians here handle that weight without stumbling. It's a record that respects both the composer and the listener, asking something of each.
